ITC Sangeet Research Academy in collaboration with Alliance Francaise and with support from Canara Union, Sursagar will present Hindustani Raagdhari music with sitar maestros Partha Chatterjee and Medha Basu.
“I am coming to present the traditional Hindustani music in its pure classical form and my aim is also to entertain the people of Bengaluru,” 74-year-old Partha said over phone from his home in Kolkata.
Parth says popular music has many genres, like film songs or ghazals. “These are easily accessible. On the other hand, classical music requires listeners to have knowledge of the genre. It is a difficult genre for a musician to connect with the audience with his thoughts and emotions while on stage. Still, classical music has its own vibrancy because it has survived for thousands of years and will continue to live for many more thousands of years.”
Parth says classical music is the best path for music. “It will survive despite challenges. When I started out as an artist, there were very few opportunities, whereas today there are plenty of opportunities and concerts. Musicians use social media platforms to promote their music.”
Partha’s journey into music was a natural one. “Music was in the family. My mother Rama Chatterjee is a singer and a regular performer on All India Radio and Doordarshan, while my late father Prabir Kumar Chatterjee introduced me to the sitar and also sent me to train under guru Nikhil Banerjee. Subsequently, Ali Akbar Khan took me under his tutelage and I also trained under Budhadev Dasgupta.”
Parth is currently a visiting faculty at Ali Akbar College of Music and has been a Guru of ITC SRA since 2011. He has performed at prestigious music festivals such as Festival of India (Basel, Switzerland), Broadway Theatre (New York), besides serving as a Music Ambassador with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), Government of India.
Before deciding on the sitar, Parth says he started singing. “I used to play the tabla with my mother in her concerts. Unconsciously I absorbed all of that Restrictions And this Raagas. I did not plan to play sitar, though my father was a sitar player. One day he brought a sitar home and gave it to me and I was fascinated by the instrument. I used to listen to many sitar players on the radio in those days.”
Partha says Kolkata is the hub of instrumental music. “Many instrumentalists, including my gurus, who are legends of classical music, are from Kolkata. Pandit Ravi Shankar, though not from Kolkata, was a Bengali. There was a time when the culture of sitar, sarod and tabla was at its peak in Kolkata.”
Parth says that in South India families follow the traditional way of teaching music by inviting teachers to their homes to promote classical music. “Even housewives learn music. This tradition was very strong in Maharashtra too.”
Medha, with whom Parth will perform, is a scholar at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata. “She is a talented musician and has been training under Ajoy Chakraborty and Brajeshwar Mukherjee since 2017. These concerts are organised to promote young talents along with experienced musicians. We want her voice to be heard too.”
Parth Basundhara is the winnerAward by Mysore Gayana Sabha (2012), Pandit Puttaraja Gawai National Award (2013), Jadu Bhatt Award, Allauddin Khan Award in Instrumental Music by Government of West Bengal (2023). Performing in Bengaluru is not new for Parth. He has performed there twice in the 90s, including at Max Mueller Bhavan.
Medha has received the National Scholarship for Hindustani Classical Music from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and is also pursuing her doctoral thesis in Physics on Musical Neurocognition from Jadavpur University.
The evening will feature a singing performance by Medha, followed by a sitar recital by Parth. He will be accompanied by Biwash Sanghai and Udayraj Karpoor on tabla and Satish Koli on harmonium.
The concert, scheduled to take place on August 3 at 6 pm at Canara Union, Malleswaram, is open to all.
